Rabbit Punches and Tyger Stripes

Weak Force, Radioactivating Materials

Weak Force is…I don’t know. I’m not a physicist. From what I can tell, it’s weak because it doesn’t have much range, but it’s understood as existing because it does seem to have a limited, yet profound, effect. Weak Force is a force that affects objects at a distance and is responsible for initiating fission and radiocative decay. So, weak force acts upon an atom turning it radioactive (which is partly why radioactivity tends to spread, I think).

A race that can control weak force is a race that can control radioactivity. They can make things radioactive; they can stop things from being radioactive. Control of weak force has obvious implications for defense and for attack, but it is also quite handy for energy. Imagine being able to provide nuclear power but to then render the radioactive run-off inert.

In part, control of weak force might create powerful stealth effects. Essentially, emissions across the electromagnetic spectrum are non-ionizing radiation. If technology could control radiation, it could, theoretically also control electromagnetic emissions, reflection, and absorption.

Here is some examples of effects related to Weak Force:

Carbon-14 based Life Form
What if a gun or device could cause the carbon in carbon-based life to become its radioactive isotope. The result would not be instantaneous death or anything but something more subtle. This might be a perfect assassin’s weapon.

Diffuse Laser
The R in Laser stands for radiation. If the weak force were controlled in a laser, it’s amplification would be impossible. The laser would become nothing more than a beam of light.

Scorched Earth
Simple control over weak force might make weapons that turned the landscape radioactive as their primary effect. Such weapons would be highly illegal, but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t exist. Turning every material in a twenty mile radius radioactive is also a nasty way to make crazy electro-magnetic interference.

Sun Walking
In large scale sci-fi, people are always manipulating stars. Maybe it’s the promise of infinite power that is so tantalyzing. Maybe it’s just the idea of tapping into the kind of natural resource that should, otherwise, burn you away. The sun’s power is based off of fusion, and thus, the sun’s power is governed by weak force. Megascale, megascale, megascale. Of course, for a race to be able to turn of a star, even for a second, is serious power. Remember, the Death Star only killed planets. On a more localized level, it’s imaginable, perhaps, that a ship might use similar technology to get a bit closer to the sun than is otherwise safe….say, the planet Mercury.